Hard Determinism - Key Points

Hard Determinism - Key Points

1. John Locke

   • Man locked in a room and he thinks he remains there of his own free will
     • Under the illusion that he is free
     • It is predetermined that the man will remain in that room

2. Leopold and Loeb

   • Murdered a 14 year old boy
   • Clarence Darrow
     • Famous attorney
     • They cannot be morally responsible for their actions because their upbringing made them this way
       • Their actions were determined

3. Mary Bell

   • Murdered two toddlers
   • Witnessed her mother - a prostitute - 'entertain' her clients with sado-machoism.
   • Genetics

4. Benedict Spinoza

   • There is unity between God and Nature.
   • The mind and the body are a part of the same thing (monistic view).
   • Humans are constrained as they are a part of Nature - God's creations - so we cannot act freely.
     • Only God is free as He is self-causing and self-determining.

5. Cosmological Argument

   • Everything in the universe has a cause.
   • There must be a first cause - God - the uncaused cause
   • Aquinas
   • Every human action has a cause - nothing is free

6. Other Key Thinkers

   • Karl Marx
   • Charles Dariwn
   • Sigmund Freud

7. Hard Determinism

   • Everything in the universe has a cause
   • Free will is an illusion
   • We cannot have moral responsibility